Tutorial: How to Create a Personalized iPhone Case

Isn't my little phone so cute? Something about it is just so me! Ha!

I have an iPhone 4 and created this little cover back in October or November with the intent of sharing how to do it, but time got away from me.

And now Picnik (which is how I designed my cover) is going away in April. Isn't that sad? So I knew that I had to act quick and get this tutorial out in case anyone might want one, too.

1. The first thing I did was start on Picnik.com with a plain white canvas, so to speak. You'll want to check out my tutorial here on how I always get a blank slate for beginning a project like this.

2. Once you have a blank slate, you will resize it to be 751 x 1414 pixels. I ordered my case from Zazzle.com and those are the recommended demensions. If you wanted to order from another company (I don't know of another company, but you might be able to find better prices out there), you'll want to check their image specs first.

3. Then, under the Edit tab, select Stickers. During the next couple of months, everyone gets free Premium service from Picnik so it's a great time--though limited-- to do some fun projects.

4. I used the Common Symbols stickers and selected the one that looks like a staircase. I expanded it to fit across the whole rectangle.

5. Then I rotated it to become a horizontal staircase and repeated it to create a chevron pattern. To repeat the image, right click and select Duplicate Image.

6. This time, I selected a dark navy color for my bottom shade and adjusted the fade by 10% for each zigzag line going up to make an ombre chevron.

7. Now you can play around with stickers and text until you have a design you love. Save the image and go to Zazzle.com. The link that will take you straight to the iPhone 4 cases is http://www.zazzle.com/custom/cases/iphone. I chose the Barely There design.

8. Select Create A Case and then select Select Image from the pop-up screen.

9. From the next screen, select Select Images to Upload and upload your saved Picnik image.

10. Select Make It Now and add to cart. 

Oooh. I might have to order this one. I think I like it better than the first. 

You'll be so proud of your new phone cover and everyone will think you are the absolute most talented thing ever! And you are, of course!

Tutorial: Fabric Flower Broach (For Breast Cancer Awareness Month)

Autumn. Schmautumn. That's what I say.

I'm a bit enthusiastic regarding fabric and felt flowers lately, even if it is October and not April. I'm using Breast Cancer Awareness Month (which I'm celebrating in crafts all week) as an excuse to keep my pinks out for a while longer.

Want one for yourself or for a homemade Christmas present? Of course you do. It's no-sew, after all! 

Let's get out those fabric bits and make something adorably one-of-a-kind.

1. Cut a felt circle for the bottom and two green felt leaves. Hot glue together.

2. Use pinking shears to cut five circles of the same size out of fabric. Hot glue one circle on top of the felt. 

3. Fold the remaining four circles in half and then in half again and hot glue.

4. Hot glue each quartered circle as the top layer to your flower.

5. Cut a piece of flannel into a strip (about 1" x 10") with pinking shears. 

6. Make pleats with hot glue every inch or so.

7. Hot glue each end together, forming a circle.

8. Hot glue the middles of the top and bottom and sides together.

9. Glue this piece on top of the flower.

10. Add two layers of felt circles and a rhinestone.

Attach a safety pin to the back and fasten to a jacket or shirt. Or belt. Or headband. Or purse. Or your shoe. Or a hat. 

Did I mention how much I'm liking these flowers?

If you missed my other pink posts for October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, you can find them here:

Pink Mantel

Sugar Scrubs

Summer Skirt Tutorial (sewing without a pattern)

Mimi and Paw Paw took our four-year old to see the Winnie the Pooh movie on Thursday, then to lunch and a little playtime at their house.

It was wonderful for all of us!

I was able to put the baby in bed for a long nap and check a project off my list.

Understand that I am a completely self-taught, short-cut-taking novice when it comes to my sewing machine. But even I was able to finish this puppy in under two hours (with plenty of interruptions and overlock stitching all the edges).

This skirt would probably take a more advanced seamstress less than an hour. You know, it would probably even take me less than an hour the next time around.

I love it! I even wore it to see Harry Potter with my mom and mother-in-law (who saw two movies that day) the same night.

Okay, so here's how I did it.

Materials:

2 yards of fabric
a skirt that fit me perfectly (more on that later)
thread to match fabric
fabric scissors
straight pins
pencil for marking fabric
zipper

1. Wash and dry your fabric, then iron it out. Lay it flat, right side up. Place a skirt (inside out) on top. If you don't have a skirt to use, measure your waist and divide that number in half), then take the measurement from waist to knee, or however long you want it to be. Using the picture above as a guide, sketch a skirt shape that is slightly bowed at both the waist and hem with an A-line shape. It might help to do this on newspaper first, to give yourself a pattern.

2. Pin the skirt (or paper pattern) in place. Before cutting the fabric, measure and mark an extra 1" allowance for the waist, 2" for the hem and 1/2" for the sides.

3. Fold the fabric so you can cut both pieces at once and cut it out. You can cut them out separately if you prefer. That would probably be best for patterns and stripes so everything will line up from back to front (I didn't and mine somehow worked out. Shortcut-taker right here.)

4. Now would be the best time to use an overlock stitch for those raw edges to prevent fraying.

5. Right sides together, place both pieces on top of each other and pin in place. Leave an opening for the zipper.

5. Stitch up the sides with 1/2" seams (except where the zipper will need to go).

6. Pin the zipper in place and use your zipper foot to sew it in.

7. Iron the waist down by 1/2". Fold it once more, iron and pin it in place.

8. Stitch the waist in place.

9. Iron the bottom hem up by 2". Pin it in place.

10. Use a blind stitch to sew it in place, close to the open edge. You're done!

If you want to create a tie like I did, cut another piece of fabric that is 4-1/2" x 8-1/2 feet (you can make it however long and wide you like). I pieced mine together using what I had left over from the skirt. Iron it in half, width-wise, right sides together and stitch it along the long open edge and one short end. Turn it inside out, press it flat, fold the open edges under on the short end and stitch them down.



Shared with: I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Sew Chatty, Today's Creative Blog, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots and Jello

Tutorial: Pencil Eraser-Stamped Elephant T-Shirts

My baby's first birthday is just around the corner. We're doing an elephant theme and decided to go with a bold color palette.

If you want to see the elephant and invitations I designed as a starting point, click here.

I recently stumbled upon this technique (done with stamping ink) on Pinterest, and wanted to put my spin on it, but with fabric paints.

For party favors, I  decided to use my elephant and create dotted, stenciled t-shirts.

Here's what I did:

1. cut your stencil from card stock and apply to your t-shirt with double-sided tape.

2. Use a different pencil eraser for each color and stamp away!

3. Make sure you dot around the stencil's edges to create a clear outline of your shape.

This was a FUN project! 

Oooh, I'm thinking about doing this with my boys' names in different shades of the same color.

And, if I am feeling like a fun mommy, I might just let my 4-year-old take a stab at it.

Stripped down to his undies. Outside. On Newspapers. 

PS: I have a lot more birthday stuff to share so keep checking back.

Shared with: Somewhat Simple, Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal

Butterfly Cupcakes

Are you going to an Easter gathering this weekend? 

I made these fun 3-D butterfly cupcakes for my mother-in-law's birthday in March, but I thought they'd be fun for any spring or summer party.

I should start by saying that I am NOT a fan of cake decorating. 

I almost always order my kids' birthday cakes, unless we do something super-easy like these.

So forgive the messiness of these. They were really fun, though, and not difficult at all for a cake-novice like myself.

Here's how I decorated my butterfly cupcakes:

1. Melt a package of chocolate-flavored melting pieces and transfer to a plastic baggie with the corner snipped or piping bag.

2. On wax paper, pipe disconnected butterfly wings like the picture above. It would probably be helpful to trace your wings on a piece of paper and place under the wax paper for a uniform guide. (You'll notice that I also piped antennae, but didn't end up using them.)

3. Refrigerate. Meanwhile, melt a package of orange melting pieces (or use white with orange food coloring-- I used the gel for a rich color). Transfer to a plastic baggie or piping bag.

4. Fill in the middles of your wings with the melted orange candy.

5. Refrigerate. Meanwhile, pipe frosting on your cupcakes.

6. After the wings are chilled, pipe white dots on top. Then, push the wings into the frosting at 45 degree angles, creating the "body" of the butterfly with the frosting in between the wings.


Linked to: Tatertots and Jello, I Heart Naptime

Tutorial: Pretty Pocket Tissue Holders

I created this pattern, thinking that I'd make one 

pretty pocket tissue holder to give to my mom on her birthday.

**a little something extra to go along with our pedicures and lunch out**

--And here we are, three pretty pocket tissue holders later.--

They're just so fun to make.

my little heart pitter- patter

Make a stack and give them out for Easter or just because. 

Materials:
2 pieces of felt

sewing machine

miscellaneous scraps of fabric and buttons for embellishing
scissors (pinking shears optional)
needle and thread for hand-sewing embellishments

1. Cut each piece of felt into a rectangle 6-1/4" x 7-1/4".

2. Optional: Trim your edges with pinking shears by cutting right along the edge. I trimmed mine slightly shorter on the top piece.

3. Lay your felt rectangles on top of each other and place a travel pack of tissues (with plastic removed) in the center.

4. Fold the left side on top, then the right side. Hold in place with your finger.

5. Pin the top layers together on both sides. You don't need to pin to the bottom layers.

6. Remove your tissues and sew the sides together (top and bottom layers) with 1/2" seams.

7. Embellish however you like. You might want to embellish the top layer before sewing the sides together. I did both ways-- it's a personal-preference thing.

For personal use only, please.

If you liked this tutorial, it would make my day if you'd become a follower or subscriber.

{Hugs to you!}

Linked to: Fingerprints on the Fridge, Tatertots and Jello, The Creative Crate, Under the Table and Dreaming, I Heart Naptime

Guest Tutorial: Closet Tags with "She Wears Flowers"

My friend, Tammy, from She Wears Flowers is here today! Her blog is amazing--filled with beautiful pictures and wonderful crafts. She is even writing a how-to-sew series that you don't want to miss! 

So hurry over to her blog and get to know Tammy!

Hi! I’m Tammy from she wears flowers

and I’m thrilled to be at In Between Laundry today!

I blog to avoid the laundry—forget about in between! {haha!} I started blogging to document and share my crafting experiences. I like a whole lotta crafty stuff especially sewing. With three girls of my own, I keep pretty busy!

Here are some of my favorite projects. 

I hope you’ll stop by and see what I have going on!
I’m going to share a little organizing idea with you today.

It is super easy and quick—two things I love with crafts!

I have one darling daughter who is a little nUtTy in the mornings before school. One way to minimize the craziness is for her to have her clothes picked out the night before. That works until…she gets upset because she already wore something she actually wanted to wear later in the week. I only do laundry one day a week which created a problem.
So I created closet tags—a handy way to quickly sort and choose her clothes so she can plan it all out ahead of time! 

Whether you have a child (or you!) who needs a little organization each week or you want to sort clothes within your closet, these little tags can help in all kinds of ways. I wish I had made them when my twins were tiny (but not the same tiny size) and I had to keep sorting and resorting their clothes!
Let’s make these tags!

Materials

fabric – variety of colors

Heat N Bond Ultra (no sew)

ribbon – 9 inches per tag

pinking shears (optional)

scissors

iron

tag template

Instructions

Make a template for your tags. I actually traced around my phone and then made my tag a little bigger. My tags are about 3 inches wide x  4 1/2 inches tall. I rounded the corners, but it really wasn’t necessary since you can do it at the end with pinking shears.
Cut your Heat N Bond into rectangles that are a little wider than your template and as long as (or tall as for this picture) twice the height of your template. (My rectangles are roughly 3 1/4 wide x 9 1/2 inches tall, but I cut it a little close as you will see later—give yourself enough room to work.)

Adhere Heat N Bond to each fabric section following the instructions on the package.

Cut the rectangle away from your fabric so you don’t have any bulk.

Trace your template directly onto the Heat N Bond two times. Cut out. Peel off paper backing from Heat N Bond.

Fold one tag down the length to find the center.

Place the ribbon along the center on the side with the Heat N Bond with about 2 inches on the tag.

 The Heat N Bond will be just a little tacky and will hold the ribbon if you don’t move it around.

Place the matching tag on top of this with the Heat N Bond sides together. Iron both sides.

Repeat for the other tags, pink the edges with your pinking shears and you’re done!

The ribbon easily loops over the hanger

We have to deal with shirts or dresses, mainly, so it only takes one hanger, but if you need to loop over a few that works, too!
There is no day designated on the tag (although you could do that, too!) but at least I know there are 6 or 7 days’ worth of outfits planned for the week. I don’t press the issue on Sundays although she wears TWO outfits that day—church and play clothes! Since Monday is my laundry day, she usually has limited choices so it all works out!

I hope you find these closet tags useful, too!

 

Be sure to stop by she wears flowers and tell me what you think!

Thanks, Erin, for letting me share a project on your wonderful blog! It’s always so fun here!